Landgolier

Indeed. It's called "cartridge bearings." However, I'm very impressed that you know how to spell

NJS regulates the equipment that can be used in a particular kind of Japanese track racing which is subject to rather large sums of parimutuel betting. Personally, I prefer the much more stringent standards of the USTA, which regulates another, much more strenuous use of 700c wheels for the ultimate purpose of gambling: harness racing. I happen to think that pulling a wheel though 6" of muck behind a 1200lb muck-emitting beast while dodging a half dozen other amphetamine-addled maniacs getting paid nowhere near enough to risk their lives for others' gain much more accurately simulates messenger work and other street riding conditions than anything that goes on at some Japanese velodrome. If it doesn't have a USTA stamp, I don't use it.

It would have saved you a lot of time if you'd just copied and pasted from the Phil Wood marketing copy:

Or maybe you actually knew that off the top of your head, and are qualified to discuss exactly why a tighter grain structure would improve the strength of something like a hub shell. If so, enlighten us.

The bearings go in evenly rather than hanging up and tipping, and when you take them out they don't scar up a certain part of the seat, which would indicate eccentricity. I measured a set and they were concentric with respect to the spoke holes to 1/20th of a mm, which is admittedly not very precise but that's what I can do with my calipers and it's definitely rounder than I can build a wheel. I don't have the tools to measure whether the seats are parallel, but that's the easiest part of manufacturing process.

I was talking tools for measuring thread quality, not tools for installing cogs. You would need such tools to actually back up the claim that one set of threading is better than another.

So wait, the crap threads on Formula's inferior Al hub stripped a STEEL lock ring? Friggin' things must be made of silly putty. Here's a pic of one, though, those concentric milling marks don't look stamped to me, but I've Been Wrong Before¸™™:


DA are probably a little harder steel but aren't stainless, buy what suits your needs.

Again, if you've got materials spec sheets on campy and formula axles, cough 'em up, otherwise the logic is that they cost more so they have to be better. 26tpi is a pain in the *** anyway. I think the formula bearings are pretty good, I certainly can't see replacing them right from the start. I'm a big guy and I've got about 2000 all-weather miles on a set, one of the rear ones is just starting to need a cleanout. Most people seem to be getting a fair amount of use out of them, and they're easy to flush and lube.

I'd be interested to know what grade of bearing Miche uses that makes them cost $50 more than Formulas. A whole set of Phil-grade bearings costs like $10, Miche must be stealing them off the USS Enterprise and sending them back from the future to make them worth that much more. As for the lock ring, I don't know of any place that sells unbuilt formulas with the lock rings, and everybody and their dog sells DA lock rings, so you can use whatever you want. Speaking of lock rings, that's one good reason not to buy Miche, they don't take standard lock rings, the Miche ones are heavily beveled so you don't have much to get the tool on, and the Campy and Phil are like $25, which is just silly.

Indeed, sealed hubs feel very different in your hand than do loose ball. Again, though, if you can feel the difference on the road, donate your body to science, as thousands of engineers and scientists would love to have an instrument both that sensitive and that capable of filtering out such a huge volume of other effects.